


Game Night Prep: New Minis!

by Kiiratam



Series: Game Nights at Beacon Academy & Beyond [13]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), RWBY, Warhammer 40.000
Genre: Background Relationships, Canon Compliant, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Miniature painting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:35:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22571101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiiratam/pseuds/Kiiratam
Summary: Ruby decided that Weiss shouldn't be the only one with a custom miniature of her F&F character. So she went to Ren for help, and they worked out an exchange.Takes place between Volumes 2 and 3. (My BMBLB fic index)
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie
Series: Game Nights at Beacon Academy & Beyond [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1482323
Comments: 17
Kudos: 41





	Game Night Prep: New Minis!

Ruby rapped on the door to JNPR's room. "Hey Ren, are you there?" He'd said he was going to be in the room for a couple of hours, and Nora was off doing a double-length workout, so she should be safely out of the way.

  
"It's unlocked."

  
And that didn't tell her if Nora was out of the room, so Ruby hid the plastic bag behind her back as she opened the door. It had branding on it, and she didn't want to give anything away. ...Not that she had an excuse ready if Nora _was_ there, she realized, too late to do anything about it.

  
Whew. Just Ren, sitting at his desk, bent close over it.

  
Ruby slipped inside. "I got the stuff." She held up the bag.

  
He didn't look, intent on his work. "They're right over here."

  
"Sorry it took me so long." She crossed the room, conscious of how little floor space there was with four beds. Wondering who made their bed, and who didn't. There were two of each, and the easy guess was Ren and Pyrrha made theirs. "I kept meaning to go down to Vale, and stuff kept coming up." But maybe that was too obvious. Jaune always surprised her; maybe he made his? And Pyrrha didn't, because she was always focused on training. "And I managed to get down there last week, but Weiss was ahead of schedule, so she asked if she could come along, and we wound up going to a weapon expo, and I kind of stayed too long because the store was closed when we got out. I didn't think to tell Weiss, so she didn't know we were on a time limit, and I got really excited." What if _Ren_ didn't make his bed? And Nora did! That _seemed_ out of character for them, but people were complicated.

  
"That's all right. I didn't finish them until this morning." Ren set the mini he was holding down, and straightened up, cleaning out his paintbrush and sealing his wet palette.

  
"Are they- I mean, can I touch them?" Ruby knew how to touch with her eyes - she'd been to enough museums to know _that_. But- these were toys. And art, because Ren was really good at this, but toys. Touching was kind of important.

  
Ren nodded.

  
"They're so _cool_!" Ruby set the bag down and snatched up the two minis. They were heavier than she was expecting. Actually metal, then, not the cheap pre-painted plastic ones she was bulking out her mini collection with. Even the froghemoth was plastic, if still hefty because of how hecking huge it was. "Orlando and Furioso look just like how I pictured them!" And the painting was just great. A lot better than Ruby's attempts. Of course, that _had_ been years ago, and she hadn't really read the instructions...

  
"Blake had very detailed descriptions. I was able to find miniatures that matched." Ren's mouth downturned just a little bit. That was a nice thing about Ren. He was easy to read, not a cascade of moods and expressions. "Orlando is too short, though."

  
"Oh yeah, she did keep saying he was tall, dark and handsome. But Aeldauphin are all really tall, and Orlando's got, um, a 19 Constitution and a 20 Strength? And he's got all those weapons, and at least some branches of the Iron Inquisition specifically choose recruits over six feet, because they're more intimidating that way. So they're probably all really tall, next to normal people." Ruby turned back to her study of the minis. "Furioso's got the boec sigil and everything! Even Orlando's favor!" The splash of green looked almost out of place against all of Furioso's red, but knowing why it was there made it cute.

  
"The sculptor I found had a whole line of Iron Inquisition figures. She ran a game rebelling against them, so she needed enemy variety."

  
Ruby nodded, turning the figures over in her hands. "That sound like fun. We may end up there." A thoughts occurred to Ruby, and she looked up at Ren. "Um, you know you and Nora can join the game too? I know it started as just a team RWBY thing, but Jaune's helping me, and now Pyrrha's playing- I just wanted to let you know that you can play if you want to. Or minion for me." It was only polite to offer. And it wasn't like she was full up on players. ...Not that she'd really ever had players other than Yang. She'd _played_ in one of the club games at Signal, but those were run by teachers. Or, well, she guessed Mrs. Lunti was technically a janitor, but she was also really cool, and she was a lot easier to joke around with than the teachers anyway.

  
"I enjoy the quiet time. Nora may be interested." He looked at the cluster of miniatures on his desk, next to the paints and brushes and tweezers and penknife and- "Aaria's miniature is going to take me a bit longer."

  
"Yeah, sorry. I didn't ever think I was actually going to get custom minis for everyone, so I gave Aria - and Aaria I guess, since she's a clone - some of the random mage mutations. I guess you couldn't find anyone with a horn growing out of their forehead?"

  
Ren shook his head. "I did find a miniature that matches the rest of the description. And some rhino Faunus, which _almost_ fit. I couldn't find a narwhal Faunus, which would have been closest. Now I just need to find a spiral horn the right size. Or learn how to make it myself."

  
Quirking her mouth, Ruby said, "How do you even attach that? Just glue it on?" That didn't seem like it would be very stable. She set the minis down on Ren's desk.

  
"Pinning. You drill a hole on both pieces -"

  
"Must be a really tiny hole." And a really teeny tiny drill. No, the _drill_ would be really tiny, and the hole would be really teeny tiny. The other way didn't make sense. ...Did it?

  
"And then you place a very small metal pin inside the holes, gluing to secure it."

  
"More surface area." That made sense.

  
Ren nodded. 

  
"Um, that sounds like a lot of work." Ruby looked down at the bag, reconsidering the numbers. "Do we just want to call this payment for Orlando and Furioso? I can get you something else for Aaria." She really didn't want to cheat Ren or anything. And his painting was really good, and he'd also gone to all the effort to find the minis, and pull the descriptions out of the backstory that Blake had written and Ruby had passed along.

  
He paused, that thinking crease in his brows. "It doesn't seem fair in exchange for just one miniature. I could do one of Aria, and another for Aaria. Putting a transition on Aaria, so she's half snow and ice."

  
"That sounds awesome! Or if Nora joins, of her character?"

  
"Let me know. I'll start work on Aaria."

  
Ruby grabbed her bag, and pulled the shrink-wrapped box out, setting it on Ren's desk. "Well, here's the Vorpalpscion for you. Or Nora, I guess. Surprise present?"

  
Ren nodded, with what, for Ren, was an enormous grin. "She doesn't have one, but it's on her list. But she's been getting 'mites, 'kites, and 'wights first. The **TABARZIN 20,000** clubs are more understanding if you proxy commanders than entire units."

  
Sighing, Ruby nodded. "I kind of hate pay to play games like that. I just want to have fun playing with toys, not spending hundreds of lien and dozens of hours getting everything painted. I have a box of Astral Knights, but I got frustrated, and haven't even finished putting them together." She'd also managed to glue her fingers together, but there was no need to _volunteer_ that. Even if Yang had to get the solvent and dissolve the glue, trying and failing to keep a straight face the entire time. Yeeeeeeeah, that was best kept in the past.

  
"I don't really like the game, but I like building and painting. We could do another exchange, if you want to have those assembled and painted."

  
"Umm..." It _would_ be cool to actually have some **TABARZIN 20,000** minis of her own. She could dig out that cross-over book with F&F, and throw her players into combat with high-tech ultra-people. ...As long as they didn't get to keep all the cool toys. She tried to imagine how much havoc Furioso could wreak with an Astral Knight heckhound axe, and her brain refused to crunch the numbers. Lots. Buckets of lots. But Ruby had stuff of her own she was trying to save up for, and **TABARZIN 20,000** stuff wasn't exactly cheap. "Maybe later? They're on Patch anyway. What did you want me to get in exchange for Aaria? And whatever else you wind up doing."

  
Ren pulled out a notebook from his desk, and flipped it open, scanning down a list of items. "A Vvvvvorpalite plasma battery?"

  
"Oh, I saw those at the store! They looked _awesome_ , just puking gouts of radioactive fire." Ruby considered her schedule, and her funds. "Is after the Vytal Tournament okay? That's when our next game is scheduled." Which was a good thing, because Ruby absolutely needed the time to plan for her players having a Key to the Fortress, and they still hadn't given her a plan of what they were going to do next, because Weiss' every idle thought was occupied with preparing for the Vytal Tournament, and really, Ruby couldn't blame her, because she was the same way right now. It was going to be fine, win or lose. But she really hoped they would win.

  
"Of course. I don't know how much painting time I'll have before then, in any case."

  
Ruby pulled out her scroll, checking the time. "Oh! I need to get to doubles practice!"

  
"Don't you do that in the morning?"

  
"Well, yeah, normally, but these are the Vytal prep extra doubles practices, so I'm working with Blake, and Weiss is working with Yang."

  
There was a rap on the doorframe, and Blake's voice drifting in. "Ruby? Are you in here?"

  
"Yup, coming!" Ruby was about to grab the minis, and stopped. She wanted to surprise Blake and Yang with them next game, and she was in a rush, so she couldn't be sure that she'd actually have time to properly hide them, and Blake was right outside anyway, _and_ she had absolute perfect 'Ruby is hiding something' senses. Yang must have taught her.

  
Ren picked up on her indecision, and said, "You can pick them up later."

  
"Thanks, Ren. They look great!" Ruby grinned at him, and dashed for the door. They'd look great next to Weiss' Whitley figure. A cute little trio of murder husbands.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a really elaborate lead-in for 'look, I painted minis for everyone!'


End file.
